Waste Land

A darkly brilliant, wide-angled vision of our chaotic, globalised world, where present crises resonate with past tyranniesfrom a bestselling geopolitical expert. We are entering a new era of global cataclysm; a deadly mix of war, climate change, great-power rivalry, rapid technological advancement, and the end of empire. In Waste Land, renowned world affairs author Robert D. Kaplan explains incisively how we got here and where we are going. Kaplans trademark sweep of history, literature, politics and philosophy draws parallels between todays challenges and those of Germanys interwar Weimar Republic. Today, too, every national disaster could spread across the world, given this centurys singular dilemmaspandemics, recessions; urbanisation, mass migration; destabilisation under large-scale democracy and great-power conflict; and the intimate bonds forged by digital media. Could stability and historic liberalism, rather than mass democracy per se, save world populations from anarchic breakdown? Waste Land is a bracing glimpse into a future defined by twenty-firstcentury technology, but remarkably resonant with the past. The situation may be spiralling out of our controlunless our leaders act first.